Speech pathologist gets 10 years for child pornography

20 years' probation added to sex offender's sentence

Warren Day, as he looked in the late 1970s, was sentenced to 10 years in prison… (Broward Sheriffs Office,…)

October 30, 2012|By Wayne K. Roustan, Sun Sentinel

A former speech pathologist, who spent much of his 30-year career working with school children, was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison plus 20 years' probation as a registered sex offender, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Warren Day, 68, of Pembroke Pines, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. He was arrested in December 2010 when investigators found on his computer hundreds of pictures and videos of children engaged in sex acts, Sheriff's Detective Jennifer Montgomery said.

"When we went into his house with our search warrant, in his office he had a cup of hot coffee sitting right at his desk and on his computer monitor was a bunch of porn," she said.

The suspect's name triggered Montgomery's memory.

Years earlier, there was a case she worked involving an 8-year-old Broward boy who had been molested. A babysitter videotaped the sex acts and put them on the Internet. The victim's mother wrote police a "victim impact statement" about how the family was coping with her son's ensuing problems, Montgomery said.

In that letter, the mother also admitted to being molested in an unrelated incident when she was about 10 years old, as a fifth-grade student at Frank C. Martin Elementary in Miami-Dade. She said her speech therapist, a teacher named Mr. Day, had molested her during their one-on-one sessions at the school.

Montgomery said the search for Mr. Day was unsuccessful until Warren Day was arrested on the child pornography possession charges. Now she wants to find other young victims.

"Anybody who's had any involvement in this case knows that this is an extremely dangerous guy and that he had access to numerous, countless children," Montgomery said.

Day became a licensed speech pathologist in 1976. He was a contract employee for speech therapy and worked at numerous schools in Miami-Dade County but left the district around 1983. He also worked with senior citizens as a speech pathologist at Hollywood Hills Rehab Center, officials said.

He was arrested in 1982 in a child-fondling case and served two years' probation. Adjudication was withheld, meaning there is no conviction shown in court records.

"Everybody agrees that there's a good potential there are other victims of his," Montgomery said.

Investigators are urging anyone who has had dealings with Day to call Montgomery at 954-888-5239.